### Chapter 79: Demon Artifact
"Heh."
Lin Yi's lips curled into a smirk as he watched Huo Bin and the demons stagger under the first wave of explosions. He slapped his storage bag, drawing another top-grade offensive artifact—his last, save for the *Kuang Wang* sword.
Huo Bin and the three demons paled.
Yan Shizong and Zhang Ziyan followed suit, pulling out their final top-grade artifacts. Xiao Liang and Peng Qingyun, out of top-grade gear, lashed out with their current weapons.
*"Detonate!"* Lin Yi hissed, flinging his artifact toward Huo Bin.
Yan and Zhang followed, their artifacts screaming toward the demons.
Huo Bin's face twisted. He rummaged in his bag, drawing a broken dagger. Infused with demonic energy, its missing piece seemed to 幻化 (manifest) in a swirl of black mist.
"Demon artifact?" Lin Yi's expression hardened.
*Boom!*
The three artifacts detonated, shaking the cavern. But Huo Bin slashed the dagger through the air—*crack!* A rift撕开 before them, swallowing the explosions. Only faint ripples reached the demons, harmless as breezes.
Huo Bin staggered, his body shriveling like a mummy, the horn on his forehead dimming. Using the dagger drained him, but it had saved them.
"Damn! That thing's 变态 (monstrous)," Lin Yi muttered.
"Mine's better." He pulled out the *Purple Demon Gourd*. To others, it looked like a mid-grade artifact, but Lin Yi suspected greater power—if he ever reached Foundation Establishment.
Cultivators *could* wield demon artifacts, though sects forbade it, fearing corruption. But Lin Yi craved longevity, not darkness. He trusted his resolve to resist its taint.
"Xu Lin?!" Yan Shizong blurted, finally connecting the dots. That gourd—he'd seen it in Yunmeng Marsh!
"Xu Lin?" Xiao Liang and Peng frowned, then realization dawned. The insufferable Second Level from four months ago… was *Lin Yi*?
Zhang Ziyan's eyes widened. *Him?* The boy who'd saved her from that lecher?
"Only you'd remember, Xiao Yan," Lin Yi grumbled.
Yan苦笑. *How could I forget?*
"Any more top-grade artifacts? Blow 'em!" Lin Yi shouted, activating the gourd. Black mist billowed, swirling toward the demons.
"Senior Brother Zhan, take this!" Huo Bin tossed the dagger to the Mengxuan demon.
Zhan grabbed it, his body shrinking as he channeled demonic energy. The dagger's mist surged, nearly overwhelming the gourd's.
Lin Yi's heart raced—losing the gourd would hurt.
Yan, grimacing, pulled out his *last* top-grade artifact. Zhang Ziyan followed, her face tight.
*Boom!* Two more detonations.
Huo Bin paled. *How many artifacts do they have?!* He'd thought capturing five low-level cultivators would be trivial. Now, they teetered on defeat.
Regret gnawed at him. *I underestimated them.*
The demons, struggling against the gourd's mist, glanced at each other. Surrender wasn't an option—not with Yin Demon Lord watching.
"Finish them!" Huo Bin croaked.
But Lin Yi's mist pressed in, and Xiao Liang and Peng's attacks kept them off-balance.
Huo Bin stared at Lin Yi, a flicker of fear unbidden. *This boy… he's dangerous.*
If only he could capture Lin Yi for the Yin Demon Lord… but survival came first.
The cavern shook with clashing energies, the outcome hanging by a thread.